This might be too hot of a topic to bring up.
What I was curious about is what the forum thought about this.

December 8th, 2010, 07:29 AM

shockwave

In the business, it's the kind of thing we call a "slow news week."

December 8th, 2010, 08:19 AM

rstickle

One thing to note is that it might be considered a bad thing to quote any of the released documents here. I think most government employees have received notice that the leaked information remains classified at this point, and we don't need that.

December 8th, 2010, 11:04 AM

Hopyard

I'm utterly puzzled by the whole episode. Something doesn't seem to add up right in my mind. I can see an army private getting his hands on a few documents; not hundreds of thousands. I can see a news-blogger getting their hands on some documents, not hundreds of thousands of pages. There must either have been a huge security boo boo in our own Defense Department and Dept of State, one so large as to be almost incomprehensible and deserving of a huge amount of Congressional inquiry, or there maybe is a disinformation campaign going on. I'm leaning toward the latter.

December 8th, 2010, 11:12 AM

ctsketch

Remember, the founder was an electronics and hacking prodigy...I'm sure in his circle he has some talent. the only system that is 100% secure is the one that is not hooked up to anything

December 8th, 2010, 11:32 AM

paaiyan

Quote:

Originally Posted by ctsketch

Remember, the founder was an electronics and hacking prodigy...I'm sure in his circle he has some talent. the only system that is 100% secure is the one that is not hooked up to anything

Even that is questionable.

December 8th, 2010, 01:04 PM

SIGguy229

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hopyard

I'm utterly puzzled by the whole episode. Something doesn't seem to add up right in my mind. I can see an army private getting his hands on a few documents; not hundreds of thousands. I can see a news-blogger getting their hands on some documents, not hundreds of thousands of pages. There must either have been a huge security boo boo in our own Defense Department and Dept of State, one so large as to be almost incomprehensible and deserving of a huge amount of Congressional inquiry, or there maybe is a disinformation campaign going on. I'm leaning toward the latter.

Seems that these "leakers" violated policies and procedures to protect our Nation's secrets, thus violating the trust given to them. As far as the amount of documents, do you know how many can fit on a CD R/W, DVD, or thumb drive (before additional policies were put into effect)? Our Boo Boo was trusting these traitors......

December 8th, 2010, 01:07 PM

azchevy

I find it hard to believe that crossdresser bradley manning did all of this, the rabbit hole is deep

December 8th, 2010, 01:11 PM

lordhamster

It surprises me that we are living in a supposedly open democratic society of the people by the people and for the people...yet we need wikileaks to tell us what our government is up to.

December 8th, 2010, 01:16 PM

ctsketch

Without secrets there can be no foreign policy/relations. what is the point of a strategy if the enemy knows it? I agree SOME things SHOULD be secret

December 8th, 2010, 01:51 PM

AlexHassin

looks like its spilled over to master card now.

December 8th, 2010, 02:16 PM

Hopyard

Quote:

Originally Posted by SIGguy229

Seems that these "leakers" violated policies and procedures to protect our Nation's secrets, thus violating the trust given to them. As far as the amount of documents, do you know how many can fit on a CD R/W, DVD, or thumb drive (before additional policies were put into effect)? Our Boo Boo was trusting these traitors......

The issue isn't how much you can put on a disc, it is how much a lowly private would be allowed to have access to. It looks like he had access to tons of stuff which were unrelated to his assignment.

I am inclined to think that there are probably a half dozen major cyber security companies and computer engineering companies which worked on the design and installation of the system as a whole. There was likely considerable incompetence among these and possibly also some malicious folks working for these companies who were not properly examined as to their background and intentions.

This mess is much bigger than one private and one eccentric Aussie.

I actually hope this proves to all be a big disinformation campaign because the idea that it all happened due to horrifically bad cyber security and malice is truly scary.

December 8th, 2010, 02:32 PM

OPFOR

A lot of it has to do with the rush to "information sharing" that happened after 9/11. One part of that was that DOS gave DOD access to almost all of their cable traffic ("cables" are official State Department documents, the term goes back to the days of sending things via submarine communications cable) via both Department's secure internet system (SIPR for DOD, ClassNet for DOS). I don't know the details of how this PFC was given access to so many cables, but they are generally broadly distributed, and if they were going to Petraus and this PFC had access to his "slug line" (cable address for an office), then he could have seen untold thousands of cables. Many secure computer stations have all external drives disabled (CD/DVD, thumb drive, etc) to prevent anything from being downloaded or saved to an external memory device, but I'm sure there are ways to defeat this if you have the know-how and intent (if this was even the case with PFC Traitor).

Everything he got, he got electronically. With the HUGE amount of data (classified and unclassified) that is stored on DOS and DOD sites, it's not at all hard to imagine that he could have accessed hundreds of thousands of documents. All he needed was access to be on a few "mailing lists" and he would receive thousands of cables a day. If he had access to older stuff for research/analysis purposes, he literally could have millions of pages at his disposal.

"Information sharing" is necessary and vital on the one hand, but on the other... Well, as Ben Franklin once said (even if he didn't originate the idea): "Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead."

December 8th, 2010, 02:42 PM

SIGguy229

Quote:

Originally Posted by OPFOR

A lot of it has to do with the rush to "information sharing" that happened after 9/11. One part of that was that DOS gave DOD access to almost all of their cable traffic ("cables" are official State Department documents, the term goes back to the days of sending things via submarine communications cable) via both Department's secure internet system (SIPR for DOD, ClassNet for DOS). I don't know the details of how this PFC was given access to so many cables, but they are generally broadly distributed, and if they were going to Petraus and this PFC had access to his "slug line" (cable address for an office), then he could have seen untold thousands of cables. Many secure computer stations have all external drives disabled (CD/DVD, thumb drive, etc) to prevent anything from being downloaded or saved to an external memory device, but I'm sure there are ways to defeat this if you have the know-how and intent (if this was even the case with PFC Traitor).

Everything he got, he got electronically. With the HUGE amount of data (classified and unclassified) that is stored on DOS and DOD sites, it's not at all hard to imagine that he could have accessed hundreds of thousands of documents. All he needed was access to be on a few "mailing lists" and he would receive thousands of cables a day. If he had access to older stuff for research/analysis purposes, he literally could have millions of pages at his disposal.

"Information sharing" is necessary and vital on the one hand, but on the other... Well, as Ben Franklin once said (even if he didn't originate the idea): "Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead."

This.

This is hitting the nail on the head. I typed a quick answer before leaving work, hoping to follow up...but this is it exactly. I'm also not so sure it was only PFC Manning that is giving stuff away/selling...but you're right--in the day and age of information sharing, if you have an account for message traffic, you can get what you need.....and most people have an account for msg traffic.

December 8th, 2010, 05:38 PM

Hopyard

Quote:

Originally Posted by azchevy

I find it hard to believe that crossdresser bradley manning did all of this, the rabbit hole is deep

I'm with you on this one, it looks pretty deep.

It almost seems like some big shots are blaming the building janitor for the loss of a company's trade secrets, and that doesn't ring true.